As we prepare to observe the Labor Day holiday and reflect on the contributions made by American workers to cable telecommunications and all industries within the U.S. economy, I hope you will keep diversity and inclusion top of mind. In a few weeks, this fall, the 30th Annual NAMIC Conference will be held as part of Diversity Week. Tackling this era of consolidation, shifting business models and overall disruption, this year's conference theme is Diversity 3.0-Innovation through Inclusion.

This year's conference agenda features insightful professional development opportunities, whether you are seeking career advancement strategies, interested in solutions for navigating change that may be on the horizon, or you are experiencing a season of transition. Over the two day symposium scheduled for September 20-21, 2016 at the New York Marriott Marquis, rich content will be presented such as:

Navigating the Corporate Landscape, a session designed to prepare professionals to transcend their current level of success and move to the next level of leadership.

Career Corners sessions are back by popular demand including, Starting Over Without Stopping the Career Clock; Are you LinkedIn?; and Achieve Your Best, Without the Stress.

Once Upon a Time...Inclusion Through Story Telling! This workshop will explore the unique power of Storytelling as an authentic, compelling tool to examine untapped resources in the recruitment, development, and retention of culturally diverse talent.

These are just a few of the provocative and informative sessions being added daily to this year's conference agenda. Register today to join NAMIC in celebrating three decades of fostering inclusion through the Annual Conference as we also look forward to the next 30 years of advancing diversity.

Online conference registration can be accessed by visiting www.namic.com. Wishing you and yours a safe holiday weekend.

Warm regards,

Eglon E. Simons

President & CEO

NAMIC

In This Issue

ANNUAL NAMIC CONFERENCE - THROWBACK THURSDAY

#NAMIC30TT

Memorable moment at the 27th Annual NAMIC Conference...Baratunde Thurston, writer, comedian and social commentator delivers a cutting-edge and engaging keynote. For three decades, the NAMIC Conference has featured media and entertainment's subject matter experts and diversity champions.
Register today for the 30th Annual NAMIC Conference for an up-close-and-personal experience with the industry's best and brightest.

Immigrants and minority entrepreneurs have historically powered the U.S. economy in pursuit of the American Dream, despite facing many challenges. There couldn't be more truth to that sentiment today. Among the 28 million small businesses across America, which account for more than half of the nation's sales, and many of them are owned by minorities and, increasingly, immigrants.

Asian-Americans have a higher median income and expect to retire nearly a year and a half earlier than the general U.S. population. They also are more likely to take care of family members other than children and to own individual stocks. Those are some of the broad findings of Prudential Financial Inc.'s Asian American Financial Experience survey, an effort the firm undertook to better understand the investing and spending habits of this successful immigrant population, nearly 75% of whom are first generation.

The past year has seen huge progress in the portrayal of sexual and gender identity in popular culture. From American actress Hari Nef becoming Elle's first transgender cover star to the unveiling of same-sex pedestrian crossing symbols for Pride in London 2016, diversity is being embraced like never before.

Diversity is having its moment again in Hollywood. If you're a person who champions the idea that the shows you're watching should more accurately reflect the varied experiences of the country's population, that sentence should irritate you. It may be especially vexing for people with long memories, who recall the last time Hollywood made an effort to put diversity at the forefront of its hiring and development efforts. And the time before that.

At the typical Silicon Valley tech company, the demographics still very much match the stereotype: Employees are more likely to be male, and more likely to be white or Asian, than in a non-tech business. Some companies that have committed to become more diverse have struggled to actually make that happen; Intel, for example, had a slightly smaller percentage of Hispanic employees, and the same percentage of black employees, a year after pledging to transform its workforce so it represents the available talent.

An all-new season of OWN's award-winning series "Iyanla: Fix My Life" will return with an emotional four-part, multi-week episode when spiritual life coach Iyanla Vanzant invites eight women to move into a "House of Healing" to dispel the myth of the "Angry Black Woman" and address the misperceptions sometimes associated with African American women, their behavior and ultimately their cultural identity. "Iyanla: Fix My Life" premieres on Saturday, September 10 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

Earlier this month, ABC's Entertainment chief Channing Dungey, asked about the franchise's ongoing lack of diversity among lead players, said at TCA, "I would very much like to see some changes there." But, she added, it won't happen immediately because of the "need to increase the pool of diverse candidates in the beginning" who can go on to Bachelor status. "That is something I really want to put some effort towards," she said.

Kellogg's and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced a new marketing partnership as the official marketing partner of the NBA across Latin America. The announcement was made by Kellogg's Zucaritas Manager Anna Consolato, NBA Mexico Vice President and Managing Director Raul Zarraga, and NBA veteran and Mexico native Jorge Gutiérrez at a special breakfast at the Olympic Gymnasium Juan de la Barrera in Mexico City.

Congratulations to NAMIC-New York committee member,
Eunice Cuevas, Manager, Key Account Marketing, Showtime Networks Inc. for being randomly selected as the winner of a free Annual NAMIC Conference registration. Eunice's name was picked from a hat for taking the NAMIC Member Survey.

Are you a NAMIC Member who was recently promoted? Have you and your team won an award for your efforts in the industry? We want to highlight your achievements!
Click here to let us know how you're becoming a mover and shaker.